THE RETURN OF THE NEPHILIM...REALLY!?

Recently, there has been a lot of talk in the air regarding Nephilim. This week I will address some of these ideas.

First allow me to clarify. I have always been fascinated by mysterious topics. I love thinking about dinosaurs, UFOs, deep-sea creatures, unsolved mysteries, Nephilim and the pre-Adamic race. I am not writing this blog to put down these topics.

Second, my highest respect is for the Word of God, not simply for what a favorite Bible preacher says. This requires me to be like a Berean (Acts 17:11) and do my own study.

Third, the word Nephilim appears in only two verses of the Bible:

“The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.” Genesis 6:4

“We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” –Numbers 13:33

From these two verses we learn two things.

The Nephilim are simply the race of giants from the Old Testament.

These two verses tell us almost nothing, yet much speculation, extrapolation, and exaggeration has come from them.

Most of the modern preaching about Nephilim has been from a passage in the New Testament, which some say alludes to their return.

“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”

Here in Matthew 24:37-39, Jesus says that it will be as in the days of Noah. Some have used this passage to create wild fantasies about Nephilim Spirits from Genesis 6 returning to subvert the world system and bring about the End of the World. Yet Jesus, church history and respected Bible commentators for 1800 years of Christianity understood that the whole of Matthew 24 was Jesus speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem in this passage. Jesus was not talking about the end of the world, Jesus was talking about His “coming” to bring destruction upon the Holy City, Jerusalem in 70AD. (For more info read www.Raptureless.com)

He speaks of the time of the destruction as being like the days of Noah, in the sense that Noah preached to the culture around him and people did not repent of their evil ways, rather they perished in the flood. This is exactly the same as how over 1.1 million Jews did not heed the voice of the early church and perished in the destruction. Also Noah and his family were perfectly protected in the Ark, as well as “not one Christian died in the destruction of Jerusalem,” says Josephus, the Jewish historian of the first century.

Yet by not having a sound exegetical methodology, many are preaching the return of the Nephilim in our future (perhaps even in our present, depending on how paranoid the preacher). The modern preachers seem to have turned the original Nephilim (Giant people) into the Modern Nephilim (Some sort of breed of super-solider demon-force ushering in the end of the world!).

Here is my stance on Matthew 24:37, simply stated: Jesus was not predicting a return of the Nephilim. (Even if you disagree with my interpretation of Matthew 24, it is still sensible to agree that Jesus was not predicting the return of the Nephilim.)

I know that this may be hard for some to believe, but for all the wild, far out, and stretching things that I teach, I don’t believe that there is ANY validity to the modern Nephilim preachers. I teach about seeing in the spirit realm, the finished work of the cross and positive eschatology, yet I am careful to be respectful of Scripture. I am saddened when I see adults that have been in the ministry for decades that take a small handful of verses and speculate, extrapolate and exaggerate them to the point that they have no cultural/historical relevance to the original hearers. I adjure you my friend, don’t buy into the hype and paranoia. Jesus was NOT predicting super-solider demons in our future.